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Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White)

1884, carved by 1888
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 764
Saint-Gaudens completed this portrait of Bessie Springs Smith (1862-1950) at the time of her marriage to the architect Stanford White in 1884. Modeling the portrait was the sculptor’s gift to the couple, and he later funded its translation into marble to settle a debt with White. Smith White appears in her bridal ensemble, holding rose blooms symbolizing love and beauty. By the mid-1880s, Saint-Gaudens’s style of relief sculpture was more ambitious, incorporating lower and higher passages, ranging from the sketchy veil to the deeply undercut chin. The tabernacle frame with a scrollwork-and-floral pattern was designed by White.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White)
  • Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
  • Date: 1884, carved by 1888
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Marble
  • Dimensions: 25 x 12 in., (63.5 x 30.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Erving Wolf Foundation, in memory of Diane R. Wolf, 1976
  • Object Number: 1976.388
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Josephine Shaw Lowell, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Marble, American
Josephine Shaw Lowell
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Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White), Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Bronze, American
Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
A. T. Lorme & E. Aubry
1884, cast 1893
Louise Adele Dickerson Gould, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Marble, American
Louise Adele Dickerson Gould
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Piccirilli Brothers Marble Carving Studio
1893, carved 1894
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer (Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer), Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Bronze, American
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer (Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company
1888, cast 1890
Davida Johnson Clark, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Plaster, shellac, American
Davida Johnson Clark
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1886

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